


Night Light

by for_the_love_of_wolves



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Full Shift Werewolves, Light Angst, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27646894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_the_love_of_wolves/pseuds/for_the_love_of_wolves
Summary: After the Nogitsune Stiles has troubles sleeping. Fortunately, Peter has a ridiculously comfortable couch.
Relationships: Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 12
Kudos: 266





	Night Light

After the Nogitsune, Stiles buys a night light. It looks like the moon. He likes the unobtrusive silver light of it and remembers his therapist's words, that it's nothing to be ashamed of. He still feels a bit awkward when he pays.

Stiles just hopes that it will help. He can't stand darkness anymore.

When he lays in his bed at night, he always has the feeling there is something lurking in the corners of his room. Sometimes, he can hear the echo of heavy rattling breaths, muffled through dirty bandages. Can hear a dark chuckle and a quiet, dragged out "Let me in. Stiles. _Let me in_."

The thoughts and memories start racing in Stiles' mind then, and sleep seems out of reach. He rolls around for ages, dozing off now and then, only to startle awake again. It's exhausting. It can't go on like this.

Fortunately, the night light does make it better.

It can't chase away the nightmares he wakes up from sweat-soaked and shaky, but it helps him to fall back asleep a bit faster.

The light helps, but Stiles finds out that he sleeps, when he is with someone. When he is not alone.

His Dad usually comes home too late or not at all, so Stiles sometimes stays with Scott, or with Lydia, or with Peter.

Why he would stay at Peter's apartment confuses everyone else. Well, since they keep their distance they don't know that Peter has an incredible couch. It is so comfortable, Stiles falls asleep on it in minutes. And it’s not only a short slumber, it's a few hours of good deep sleep. Stiles feels rested afterwards.

He is aware he has been staying at Peter’s more often lately, even when they weren’t left behind by the pack to do research - seriously, it became kind of a pattern from them, to leave the weak and vulnerable human that was possessed by an evil spirit, with the strong and unstable werewolf they still don’t want to trust. But Peter hasn’t complained about it so far. In fact, he has started to prepare the couch for Stiles like he knows when he is going to want to nap on it.

And for some reason they don’t talk about, Peter leaves on one of the lights in the room.

Maybe, Stiles should think about this more than he does, but it is actually one of the little nice things in his life, so why should he fight it.

* * *

One Saturday, Stiles comes home late from an evening spent studying with Lydia. He stumbles into his room, immediately switches on the night lamp and - he yelps and almost falls over his bag as he stumbles backwards, his back hitting the wall. He feels like his stomach turned into ice water and his heart certainly has faltered for a beat. “Jesus!” he yells, raising a shaky hand to press it on his chest. “What the hell!?”

The wolf sitting on his bed stares at him unfazed and huffs, blue eyes still gleaming, now reflecting the light. He is grey, not black, so Stiles knows very well it’s Peter, not Derek.

Stiles shakes his head, still recovering from the shock. “Seriously, what the hell is it with you Hales and sneaking into my room, waiting to scare the shit out of me?! This isn’t funny! And why are you here in wolf form? Did you think that would make this even scarier? Well, it did …” he points at the door and narrows his eyes. “Out.”

Peter-wolf stares at him for a moment, then does something that shocks Stiles even more. He ducks and whines, laying down until he can put his head on his massive paws, looking up at Stiles with literal puppy eyes, now normal wolfy yellow.

Stiles blinks. “Uh. Dude, what the hell? Is this wolf for _Please let me stay_?”

The wolf wags his tail and Stiles scrunches his nose. “Wow. Okay. I don’t really understand what’s going on and why you won’t change back and tell me, but … since you let me nap on your ridiculously comfortable couch so often, I guess I can return the favour.”

Peter blinks twice, then raises his head and yawns, showing perfect rows of white glistening fangs. Stiles looks at them in fascination. “Fuck. If you stay like this, I hope you don’t dream about hunting anything, I don’t want these in my neck,” he murmurs, grabbing his clothes for the night and going to the bathroom to change into them. A moment later he is glad he is already out of the room, because he briefly realises if Peter doesn't stay a wolf, he will be naked. Beside Stiles. He brushes his teeth almost violently.

When Stiles comes back into his bedroom, Peter has stolen the entire right side of the bed plus two pillows. Apparently, he has pulled them over with his teeth and now is laying on them like a king on his throne, his eyes closed. Stiles stares, still very confused. He finally shrugs, too tired to wonder about this any longer. He gets into bed and frowns at how little space he has left. With a sigh, he pulls the blanket up and gets comfortable. To his own surprise, he falls asleep quite fast, although he is laying in bed with a giant wolf able to crack human bones in a second. In a bed with a wolfed-out snuggly Peter Hale, he thinks vaguely and thinks he can hear himself giggling before he falls asleep.

He doesn’t dream.

* * *

Peter is gone in the morning. Crumpled sheets and a few grey hairs are the only proof he has been there at all.

Stiles wonders about the incident, until a very tired Scott tells him at school that he has spent the night with Derek, playing video games and eating fast food. “Really? Why?” Stiles asks, surprised. Scott yawns and gives him a look. “Dude. It’s been the anniversary of the fire.”

“Oh,” Stiles makes. Oh! Suddenly, he gets it. He gets why Peter showed up last night. And he starts to feel a strange combination of confusion and warmth at the fact that Peter came to him for comfort apparently. It is like Peter thought since Stiles occasionally spends the night on his couch, because he doesn’t like to be alone with the dark things lurking inside his mind, he could do the same. He trusted Stiles with this. Trusted him to not make fun of it or tell anyone. And maybe he showed up in his wolf form, because he was ashamed about the fact that he didn’t want to be alone. He didn’t want to talk. Just like Stiles doesn’t want to talk about why he stays at Peter's apartment.

“Are you alright?” Scott asks with a hint of worry in his voice, when Stiles is silent for too long.

“Yeah,” Stiles murmurs, “just thinking.”

He can’t suppress a smile. Maybe, he is going to nap on Peter’s couch today. There is a book he urgently needs and will certainly find in Peter’s library …

**Author's Note:**

> If this story sounds familiar to you, it is because I decided to delete a story collection I didn't feel satisfied with ("For In Between") It was a mess, there was more than one fandom, and I already have a story collection anyway, so I decided to post the stories as One Shots and edit / extend them a bit. I feel better with that now and I guess it's also easier for readers to find the stories they like this way :)


End file.
